#may carleton

you're hard to hug

tough to talk to

and i never fall asleep

when you're in my bed

all you give me is a heartbeat

Starring Role - MARINA

A/N: May Carleton comes to teach at the local high school. Part of my American Teenager AU. Vinnie Shelby is an OC belonging to @the-makingsofgreatness.

Sending letters to a man who burns them.

Staying even when he says he's changed his mind about reconnecting with her.

Sleeping with him even though she's married - hence - already picked a man.

"I stay in the dirt" vs "I'M PREGNANT! IT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?? THEN I LOVE YOU."

You still didn't tell me what you do. Oh, I do bad things. But you already knew that.

For the most part, I like to think of Peaky Blinders as a well-written show because of its focus on character, symbolism, layered dialogue, set design, and acting. However, sometimes I have to remember that there are plenty of elements that are just there for drama's sake and unfortunately, because of that, take away from the show's overall message and impact.

It is a surprise to no one who has been online that there is a fair amount of division in the Peaky Blinders fandom over favorite couples, particularly for Thomas Shelby. Although I would guess the majority of people are fans of Tommy and Grace, there is clear support amongst other fans for Tommy and Lizzie, Tommy and May, Tommy and Jessie, even Tommy and Tatiana.

Part of this comes from having a diverse audience who watch Peaky Blinders for different things. Some people watch it, like me, for all of the symbolism and great acting, and are therefore interested in the story elements that reflect that. Some are interested in the drama of the show or the allure of the gangster lifestyle or even just the gang of people from Birmingham who try to carve out a place for themselves amongst the elites. Whichever aspect draws you in is probably where your interest will lie in and make you concerned and supportive of certain characters.

Obviously, if you just wanted a show that displayed the glory of being a gangster, you're at least going to be disappointed in the overall arc of the show and especially the ending. If you believe so strongly in the morality of only the Birmingham gang, that's a pretty limited view since it's not only those people who have any decency in the show.

It's hardest to take this with the relationships because they are meant to convey the more human aspects of its characters and especially Thomas Shelby. We would not care or feel much for Tommy if we didn't see him do good things for his family and care for them most of all, even with struggling with his PTSD and general ambivalence for life from the war. We saw him able to recognize and believe in pure things again with falling in love with Grace, and though that experiences a temporary setback when her real status is revealed to him, it stays true for the length of their relationship.

While I certainly agree that every relationship that Tommy has reveals something about his character, including the ones he has with Lizzie, Jessie, and Tatiana, and therefore serves a purpose to his overall character arc and the meaning of the show, I can't fault people for believing certain couples were being promoted and could have been possibly endgame because the show sometimes prompts this solely for the sake of drama.

For example, at the end of season 2, everything about the story has been arranged so that Tommy is faced with two romantic choices: May or Grace. Although it should be quite clear to anyone from the final events that Tommy's speech at his potential gravesite about a woman would be about Grace, things were left unspecific so that there could at least be a question of who it was about. Then when we had the wedding scene in the opening of the third season, the bride's face is obscured by the veil so that until Tommy takes it off, we still don't know who it is. Many of those elements were for the sake of drama, but there was at least a grounding in symbolism because the show made it clear that May would have represented a cold calculated choice to further his business interests and Grace the choice of love and happiness in his life. So, although shrouded in dramatic elements, there was at least a point to it.